Weekly Meeting

Hawick's Rotarians met again at Mansfield House Hotel last week, and the focus was a 'visit' by President of Rotary in Great Britain & Ireland Tom Griffin. Tom was a Scottish solicitor who first joined Rotary in the Selkirk Club but then moved on to be chief executive in two District Councils in the Essex and Suffolk areas. Having already made a virtual visit by Zoom to his old Club in Selkirk, this week he took part in Kelso's meeting. His presentation to that Club was recorded and played back two hours later to Hawick members and this led to lively debate.

This year's Rotary slogan is 'Rotary Opens Opportunities' and Tom spoke of those opportunities in terms of service for others and of fellowship. Service for others could be in terms of helping the local community (such as in flood recovery at Crowbyres and at Newcastleton), nationally, or indeed internationally such as through Lend With Care or Ending Polio Now. Fellowship could involve the weekly get-togethers which might mean a lot to members themselves, but also in the potential, in normal times, for visiting other Clubs around Britain or overseas.

Tom Griffin ended by suggesting that Rotary therefore might be an organisation which could appeal to those many volunteers who have been involved with Covid 19 protection and who might welcome the chance to help on different and wider activities.